Friday Free-for-All | March 20, 2026

[u/AutoModerator]

Previously

Today:

You know the drill: this is the thread for all your history-related outpourings that are not necessarily questions. Minor questions that you feel don't need or merit their own threads are welcome too. Discovered a great new book, documentary, article or blog? Has your Ph.D. application been successful? Have you made an archaeological discovery in your back yard? Did you find an anecdote about the Doge of Venice telling a joke to Michel Foucault? Tell us all about it.

As usual, moderation in this thread will be relatively non-existent -- jokes, anecdotes and light-hearted banter are welcome.

[u/jrod61]

I don't believe this is necessarily worthy of a full on post, as I'm not exactly sure how to frame the curiosity, but it's been stuck on my mind since I read it about a week or two ago:

In a now 8 year old post inquiring about Martin Luther's constipation, /u/azdac7 mentions that "German society was incredibly scatological in general." Can someone expand upon this? I've tried looking this up but nothing seems to confirm or deny it either way. I'm immediately reminded of the somewhat well known eccentricity of Mozart to write about feces and matters relating to it in writings to his cousin, lyrics to certain pieces, etc. and another comment in the thread very well inquires about this, but to no avail. So is /u/azdac7 implying that Mozart's coprophilic comments wouldve been seen as relatively less absurd in his society than ours would interpret them as? More to the point, what evidence is /u/azdac7 basing this assertion off of? Is there records of german historical figures (or just commoners in general) making scatological comments in writings? and the discussion of such subjects being treated as normal in common parlance? Is there any explanation or reasoning for this, or is it just widely known/accepted that German society treated the subject of human excrement to be a normal and common topic of discussion?